It should be noted that they changed their algorithm this year. They are giving more weight to good actions. So this change in ranking is partially due to good

It should be noted that they changed their algorithm this year. They are giving more weight to good actions. So this change in ranking is partially due to good countries getting more credit for stuff they were already doing, as well as new bad actions in the USA. Nothing to feel proud about as this probably means the USA would have ranked pretty low anyway in 2010, were it calculated by 2011 standards.